Throwing Vases
by Forever-Furuba
Summary: Looking for a fun 'couples activity', Barbara and Nomura take a pottery class.


Post-canon, except the Heartstone either wasn't destroyed or was restored, so the trolls never left Arcadia Oaks. After the Battle of Eclipse, the humans of Arcadia Oaks knows about trolls and Changelings, so Strickler and Nomura and Not Enrique (and Jim!) are able to live openly on the surface. (Changelings are immune to sunlight even in troll form and Jim is using the sunlight-immunity stone in his amulet.) Barbara and Strickler tried dating again for a while but broke up amicably. Barbara and Nomura have been casually dating for a while and recently became exclusive.

– _Italicised text between hyphens_ – indicates text messages. _(Emojis)_ are described in parentheses.

* * *

– _I know you're more interested in collecting pottery than making it, but I thought this might be something fun to do as a couple._ –

Nomura followed the link Barbara had texted her to a digital flyer from a local pottery studio, offering classes on Thursday evenings for six weeks.

There were essentially two ways to make pottery: handbuilding, which was self-explanatory, and throwing, where the project was crafted while being spun on a pottery wheel. The first three weeks of class would be devoted to handbuilding, and the final three to working with wheels.

– _It would be nice to have a standing date night. (heart)_ – Nomura texted back.

– _I'll sign us up?_ –

– _Go ahead. (smiley face)_ –

– _(smiley face)(heart)(blown kiss_ )– – _Done and done; and look, I found a vase emoji! (vase)_ –

– _That's an amphora. They were used in Ancient Greece to store and transport food such as grain, fish, or olive oil. And especially wine (champagne flutes clinking)_ –

– _(heart-eyed smiley face) You are so smart._ –

* * *

Barbara had blocked the time off in her schedule, although they both half-expected her to be called away regardless. Nomura was the only troll in the studio, which did not surprise her. Most trolls and Changelings only appreciate ceramics as a snack food.

Another woman, likely the teacher since she had the studio's name on her shirt and was wearing a nametag, gave Nomura an assessing look when they came in and approached immediately with a frown.

Barbara's hand tightened around Nomura's. Nomura itched to draw her khopesh – except she didn't just carry her swords everywhere anymore.

"You need to wear shoes in the studio, ma'am. I'm not sure how that works with – hooves," gesturing at Nomura's cloven feet, "but it's policy everyone has to wear shoes or boots."

Nomura blinked. She was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants, rather than her usual dress, and had tied her hair back, but footwear had simply not occurred to her. None of the, admittedly few, businesses she'd patronized since getting stuck in troll form had enforced a 'no shoes, no service' policy on her, regardless of what the signs on their doors proclaimed.

"I keep a spare pair of runners in my car," offered Barbara, "you know, in case I'm out wearing heels or sandals and then have to go to work. But I don't know if they'd fit you."

Barbara's sneakers did not, in fact, fit Nomura. They ended up missing their first class to shoe shop. In positive news, they found a pair of towering wedge-heeled boots that worked with Nomura's unique foot shape _and_ , so Barbara claimed, were "amazingly sexy".

* * *

Class 1 had been simply to get the students used to the materials, tools, and layout of the studio. Nomura didn't feel like they had missed much by not getting to carve and etch into flat clay squares.

For Class 2, they were making shallow dishes.

"Ash trays used to be a common project for beginners," said Jenny, the instructor, "but if you don't smoke, and still want something more practical than a display dish, you might consider making a spoon holder." She held one up. It was round and flat-bottomed, with short walls and a divot on one side. "You can keep it in your kitchen by the stove, to put a spatula or large spoon down while you're cooking without getting whatever's on it on the counter."

Barbara's hands clenched, squishing the clay through her fingers. Nomura carefully bumped elbows with her. Barbara looked up and blinked away some tears.

"You okay?" Nomura whispered.

"Yeah," Barbara insisted. "I just … You know I don't cook much."

"Well, maybe having a new gadget in the kitchen will inspire you."

" _Gadget_." Triumph; Barbara laughed. "That's an exaggeration."

* * *

For Class 3, they made coil pots. Nomura kept making her clay 'snake' too long and having it tear in half as she worked with it. The difference in the thickness and texture of her fingers in troll form compared to human form never felt as obvious as when she tried to do something delicate. At least her stone skin was easier to wash the smudges of clay from than human skin was.

"I think the trick is to use shorter sections and blend them together at the ends?" said Barbara. She was making little spirals of clay and sticking them together, with grand ambitions of crafting a fruit bowl.

"Or give up and call the ragged bits an artistic choice."

"I thought you were planning to smooth out the sides when you were done?"

"I changed my mind. I'm putting too much work into this to just erase the evidence."

"You're cute when you growl."

Nomura froze for a second, and then growled again, far more playfully.

* * *

The first lesson with a pottery wheel was a simple one: to centre the clay and pull a cylinder.

Once Nomura accomplished that, she squashed her clay back into a blob and tried again, until she could do it with ease. Then she took her cylinder off the wheel and used the handbuilding skills from past lessons to add handles and embellishments, turning it into the mug that was this week's assignment.

"Can any of your glazes withstand an intense scouring process?" she asked Jenny.

"… You mean a dishwasher?" the human asked.

"I mean a harsh antibacterial soap." Nomura looked to make sure Barbara wasn't listening. She was safely across the studio, testing the different speeds of the wheel and reshaping her cylinder abstractly. "I'm hoping Barbara could take this mug to work when it's done, and she works at a hospital, so it absolutely _has_ to be sanitized."

"Mm … Clay being porous, I'd have to advise against anything made here being used in a hospital setting, even with a glaze. I'm sorry."

* * *

– _Sorry, babe, I'm just not going to get out of work in time. Have fun for both of us tonight?_ –

– _It's no fun without you._ –

– _You're sweet. But go anyway._ – – _Make something to surprise me with. (winking smiley face)_ –

* * *

The final project was a covered bowl or a jar with a lid.

"Let's try to make ours the same size," Barbara suggested. "That way we can use the lids interchangeably."

"Sure." Making them as a set would be nice; something they could use 'together' by swapping the lids even if Barbara's bowl stayed at her house and Nomura's bowl stayed in her apartment.

Of course, that meant their project took longer, since they had to keep swapping and adjusting everything, but _that_ meant they got to work together instead just alongside each other.

"You can pick your projects up next week," Jenny promised, when the jars and bowls and lids were taken away to be glazed and fired, and the classes were officially over.

* * *

Barbara held onto Nomura's shoulder to keep herself upright as she laughed. A box of nearly-broken pottery sat before them. Each item was in one piece, but each piece was technically non-functional.

Nomura's ceramics, nested safely in another box, had turned out fine. Barbara's had … not.

"I can't believe _every single one_ of my projects cracked in the kiln! I mean, I _can_ believe it, I do, but, wow. Even when it's not food, I _cannot_ bake!"

"Just say the word and I'll eat the evidence," Nomura promised, purely to hear Barbara laugh even harder. Once her girlfriend regained her composure, Nomura suggested, "We should sign up for a painting class next."


End file.
